Cardiometabolic risk factors are highly prevalent among India’s urban middle class, indicate the findings of an 11 city, cross sectional survey.1 But a comparatively lower prevalence was seen in cities in eastern India and cities that ranked lower on a social development index.

Published in the Journal of Global Health, the study found that the prevalence of high blood pressure, high cholesterol concentrations, overweight, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome was significantly lower among people living in urban regions of eastern India (P<0.05). Diabetes and metabolic syndrome were more prevalent in north Indian cities.

One of the study’s coauthors, Rajeev Gupta, told The BMJ that, unlike most other reports, his …